Patna, Jan. 21: The general administration department (GAD) today issued letters to all controlling officers of the department to ensure complete adherence to the Bihar Government Code of Conduct Rules which stipulates that all the employees from Class I to Class III have to declare their asset details latest by January 31 every year.
The letter not only talks of ensuring adherence to the rules but also says the name of the defaulters should be provided on February 1 itself so that necessary departmental action can be taken against such persons.
“We have decided to set an example for other departments by ensuring complete adherence to the rules here,” a senior GAD official told The Telegraph.
He said an informal decision has also been taken which talks of uploading the asset details of GAD officials and employees on the department website for bringing it to public domain.
“Though a final decision on this is yet to be taken,there is a consensus in the department for bringing the asset details of officers and employees of GAD in public domain for ensuring complete transparency,” added the official.
He said though any such decision regarding officials and employees of other departments was yet to be taken but GAD intends to set another example so that others could follow it.
As reported by The Telegraph in its edition on January 4, the state government is serious about implementing the Bihar Government Code of Conduct Rules as part of its move to tame corruption in government machinery.
It is not that the rule did not exist earlier but it was not being put in practice and a good number of state government officials and employees used to be lax in furnishing such details. As far as officials of all India services are concerned, they too have to declare their asset by the end of January every year. Majority of these officials comply with the rule, as there is one column in their annual confidential report that seeks information on whether they have filed the report of asset details or not.
Drive against corruption and transparency have been some of the thrust areas of NDA-II government and chief minister Nitish Kumar has repeatedly mentioned this after coming to power for the second consecutive time.
He took the lead on this when his cabinet colleagues and he declared their asset details in December itself and these details were brought in the public domain by uploading the facts on government website.